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Phoenix Falling
I am not entirely sure that Kanye West knows how a phoenix works. He does, however, know how to make a gorgeous, self-indulgent, gorgeously self-indulgent piece of art.
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Squirrelly Flow
Justin Bieber “is white,” and boy does he wants us to know. In case we weren’t already aware of the demographic categories he falls under (Caucasian, pubescent), he is kind enough to remind us at the very end of his new video, “Speaking in Tongues.” This is no ordinary music video though—nay, this is Bieber’s…
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Phallus Palace
Examining Die Antwoord’s new video “Evil Boy,” it seems more meaningful and efficient to list all the _non-phallic_ imagery:
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Digesting Digest
Bradford Cox has always reminded me of Bean, that tiny, brainy kid from Orson Scott Card’s _Ender’s Game_ book series. For the non-nerds among you, Bean is the smartest, and smallest, of a group of preadolescents who are trying to take over a futuristic version of our universe. Somewhere in the series, he discovers that…
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The Lady’s a Politician
Philadelphia, PA It’s the middle of the night in a packed venue in downtown Philly. With one high-heeled foot on the piano bench and another on the piano itself, Lady Gaga puts her hand on her heart and rasps into the microphone, “I, Lady Gaga, swear that I will never—ever—lip sync, in any show, for…
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Scan His Rhymes
If great hip-hop artists produce minor hip-hop artists, as RZA brought us Method Man and Biggie Diddy, Gucci Mane may achieve greatness on October 5th, when Waka Flocka Flame attempts to achieve with _Flockaveli_ what OJ Da Juiceman sort-of eventually bothered to get around to with _Tha Other Side of the Trap._ Of course this…
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Buy [Gucci’s] Album
In the video for the first single off his new LP _The Appeal: Georgia’s Most Wanted_, Gucci Mane, sporting space-age bug-eyed sunglasses, a grey keffiyeh and a mink around his head, asks his audience, “Do you know what time it is?” The answer, of course, is Gucci Time. _The Appeal_, which dropped September 28, is…
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Download G.O.O.D. Fridays
Kanye West divides and provokes and resides like few entertainers suspended in the stratosphere of fame. His skill as a musician is indubitable, but so is his misbehavior. To some, he is a prophet of the heavens, speaking Truth to the ignorant masses without regard for dumbass industry mores (and screwing with the industry’s prim…
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Bombs and Hookers
“Innovator”—Plains (Link) At first we think it’s a requiem; the minors chords on a solo guitar, “ROOSEVELT DIES SUDDENLY” as the featured headline. The women weep as Truman kisses the Bible, then as shadows descend over the mountains the soldiers don their goggles with resolve. Grief is somehow implied in their faces as they set…
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Desert Apocalypse
During the monorail ride at the Newark Airport, most of the talk was about how “crazy” the weekend would be at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. The lineup was particularly strong this year, boasting Thom Yorke, The xx, Phoenix, Tiesto, and Spoon, to name a few. I was traveling with a group of…
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Top 30 Albums on WPRB
1. BLACK TAMBOURINE Black Tambourine [Slumberland] 2. FOUR TET There Is Love In You [Domino] 3. PANTHA DU PRINCE Black Noise [Rough Trade] 4. TITUS ANDRONICUS The Monitor [XL] 5. VARIOUS ARTISTS Pomegranates: Persian Pop [B-Music] 6. TED LEO AND THE PHARMACISTS The Brutalist Bricks [Matador] 7. DUM DUM GIRLS I Will Be [Sub Pop]…
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“Well, Daring, I Can’t Go—”
Joanna Newsom must be the most enigmatically fascinating figure in indie music today. Though she’s shrouded in a barely-tangible sense of cultured innocence—her closeness with her astrophysicist and musician siblings, her compositions and lyricism refined by academia yet bejeweled with joy—she’s ended up working with some of the most formidably famous people in the business…